Blind Tasting No. 10 Recap
Very Sherry
Aging or finishing whisky in sherry butts is common practice in the Scotch industry as it adds a layer of complexity to the final product. The flavors that the whisky picks up will depend on the sherry that was previous in the cask, meaning different sherry butts will have different impacts on the whisky. During Blind Tasting No. 10, we got to experience this first hand with Tomatin’s Cuatro Series. We tasted the same Highland single malt from Tomatin Distillery that was finished in four different first-fill sherry butts: fino, manzanilla, oloroso and pedro ximenez. The impact of the different sherries is very subtle, making this tasting the most challenging to date! Not to mention, there were four whiskies this time. Here’s a little bit about what we tried!
Fino is aged biologically, meaning a layer of flor protects the sherry from oxidation. It also promotes enzymatic reactions that convert acids (sour) into aldehydes (citrus, floral). This gives fino yeasty, saline, herbal, doughy and almond flavors. The Scotch that was finished in fino butts had lighter notes of apples, pears, licorice, pinenuts, toffee, orange and chocolate balanced with briney, earthy and hay notes.
Manzanilla is the same as fino, but aged in Sanlucar de Barrameda near the sea. The flor develops into a thicker layer because of the cool and humid climate resulting in dry, fresh, zesty, saline and chamomile flavors. The members picked up similar notes of orange, licorice, almonds and nuts in this whisky to the one finished in fino butts along with raisins, baked goods, lemon, spice and pepper.
Oloroso starts with a heavier must and is aged oxidatively, which results in richer flavors like walnuts, balsamic, dried fruits and tobacco. The whisky that was finished in oloroso butts had green grape, apple, brine, vanilla, maple, caramel, licorice, citrus, salted butter and cough syrup notes.
Pedro Ximenez is produced using sun dried PX grapes, which have a very high sugar content. Because of this, not all the sugars are fermented and many residual sugars remain in the sherry making it very sweet. PX is also aged oxidatively and has notes of candied figs, dates, chocolate, licorice and spices. Sweet notes of candied fig, fruit, vanilla, cream and jelly filled doughnut carried through to the whisky finished in PX butts along with chocolate, citrus, espresso, smoke and cashews.
Remember, the members are tasting these all blind. So, this tasting was very challenging, but the members fully embraced it and didn’t want any hints as they guessed which whisky was which. No one guessed all four correctly, but many were able to correctly identify which whiskies were finished in oxidatively aged sherry casks versus the biologically aged sherry casks. I was so impressed with everyone’s palates! Established whisky reviewers (including myself) have a hard time differentiating the flavors of these whiskies and I doubt any of them would attempt/be able to do it blind.
